


How We Wish

by mcmachine



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Gen, Pregnancy, labor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 21:29:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13373415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmachine/pseuds/mcmachine
Summary: April gets the proper labor that she deserves.





	How We Wish

**Author's Note:**

> Written before 12x24 and posted on Tumblr even longer before then.

April was five days past her due date, stomach perfectly inflated by the baby inside of her, and still running around on her feet as much as everyone around her would allow. Arizona had strongly recommended bed rest once she’d passed the due dates, and she had at least been reasonable enough to stop operating a week before she was expected to pop, only for the sake of her patients. But she’d still shown up at the ER every day since then.

Of course, Hunt and the interns had been snatching all of the exciting surgeries that rolled through, and she’d mostly been dealing with migraines, stomach aches, and stitches. Hunt had tried to give her the days off, and she’d shown up anyway. Even Jackson had been letting her sleep through her alarms.

She had been lurking in the gallery of one of Jackson’s surgeries when she’d felt the first contraction. It was more painful than what she remembered.

Once it had drawn to its end, she’d headed back down the ER. Or tried to, at least. Instead, April had ended up laying in one of the on-call rooms, curled up on her left side and biting down on her lower lip hard. She tried to tell herself it was just Braxton Hicks, that the baby wasn’t ready to come out yet. Even as large as she felt at this point in the pregnant, she remembered all too clearly how tiny Samuel Norbert had been when he had been born, how terrifying that it had been. And she couldn’t bring herself to page Jackson or Arizona.

But she hadn’t gotten a real choice.

“Kepner, what are you doing here? I thought Robbins told you to get on bed rest.” The voice of Miranda Bailey had interrupted her pained privacy, and she’d only shook her head, not managing to get a word out. Instead of refuting what Bailey had said, a dreadful groan escaped from her lips, and she wondered why she had wanted to do the all natural route.

“Are you…?” Cue the famous Bailey intuition. “Oh, good lord, April. You can’t hide out from giving birth. Trust me, prolonging your pain is not something you want to go down.” The redhead doesn’t respond, teeth clenched together even as the other woman reached for her pager. She was surprised for only a moment when she disappeared, surprise quickly fading when Miranda returned only seconds later with a wheelchair. “Come on, honey.” Probably the kindest tone she’d used on April in as long as she'd known each other. “You’re having your baby today.”

April obliges enough to get in the wheelchair, Bailey only pushing her around for a moment before Hunt started pushing her, and that only lasting a few seconds longer before Jackson had run down to find her, pushing her up to the maternity ward.

“I’m not in labor.” She insisted between contractions to anyone who would listen. “I’m not.”

After refusing to let the on-call OB/GYN examine her, Arizona had been paged to her room. Despite the debilitating contractions having gotten to just minutes apart, April was curled up on her side, refusing to change into so much as a patient gown. Arizona cleared the room easily, even managing to convince Jackson to give her a few minutes alone with the laboring mother.

“What’s going on, April?” Arizona asks gently, taking the redhead’s hand and sitting. “You were so excited to be pregnant. And we’ve run every test out there. You’ve got the healthiest little girl in there, fighting for her way out. She’s ready to meet you. I’m ready to meet my goddaughter. And we both know that you’re ready to be a mom. You’re going to be a kick-ass mom. Everyone kid on the block will wish they were yours.”

The pep talk helps, but April can’t help that she sniffles and tears up. Half of it is the pain, the other half pure emotion. Part of her knew that Arizona was right, but part of her just couldn’t.

“Talk to me, April. I don’t want to wheel you up for a c-section against your will.” The blonde insists, giving her a hand a good squeeze. Her thumb rubs over the back of her hand, knowing that she must be in unbearable pain, wanting to help however was possible.

“I’m scared,” April finally admits after a moment, quivering. “I keep thinking about Samuel. I was a mom. Then I wasn't.” It’s all that she can manage to say before tears spill past her eyes, and it’s only a matter of seconds before she’s directly sobbing. As Arizona wraps her into her arms, she sobs into the white lab coat, weakly clinging to the other’s body.

“You've always been a mom and you always will be. You and your baby are going to be just fine, April. You’ll know that once you give her a chance to come out. It’s okay to be scared, but the only way that you’re going to stop being scared is by doing it. You’ve got to.” Arizona says gently, stroking her back softly.

April cries for a few more minutes, but at some point, the sobs turn into nods.

“Okay. Okay. I can do this.”

“We can do this.”

Arizona’s correction earns a soft smile from April. The blonde gives her hand one last squeeze, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead before she steps out to retrieve Jackson and one of her most trusted nurses.

April finally smiles at Jackson, filled with delight to know Catherine was there too, though she waited outside the room. Once Arizona performs a quick exam, she’s already fully dilated and ready to push. After that, it doesn’t take much time. Her ex-husband held one of her hands with both of his, and by the end of the hour, she’d finally given birth to their daughter: Grace Catherine Avery.


End file.
